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I was hypothesizing about making a planet with a different path of evolution. A planet with dominant species being more akin to amphibians albeit further down the evolutionary chain. Would extreme tides have that effect? like say miles long, or would those tides wreck the continents too much? How might these extreme tides influence that evolution?

Maybe a 1000ft height difference. Probably a slower tide so that it doesn't cause 1000ft high tidal waves. So like a tide that goes all the way out and all the way in like 3 or 4 times a year or so

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    $\begingroup$ What is an extreme tide for you? Can you attach a number to it? $\endgroup$
    – L.Dutch ♦
    Jun 7, 2021 at 19:30
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    $\begingroup$ There are places on Earth where the intertidal zone extends for many miles, and nobody thinks that the tides there are extreme. (And here on Earth very very few amphibians live in sea water, so we have no idea how the tides would affect them.) $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Jun 7, 2021 at 19:30
  • $\begingroup$ let's say 1000ft height difference. Probably a slower tide so that it doesn't cause 1000ft high tidal waves. So like a tide that goes all the way out and all the way in like 3 or 4 times a year perhaps $\endgroup$
    – Ithurien
    Jun 7, 2021 at 19:32
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    $\begingroup$ Edit that info in the question, not in the comments. $\endgroup$
    – L.Dutch ♦
    Jun 7, 2021 at 19:43
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    $\begingroup$ Gonna be difficult to do higher tides that Earth had, back when the Moon was young. 600m (yes meter, not inch) tides, back when the moon was 1/18th the distance from Earth. $\endgroup$
    – PcMan
    Jun 8, 2021 at 19:34

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We don’t have examples of this tide pattern on Earth to cite, but I suggest we can extrapolate from other highly variable environments. Deserts that have a monsoon season or arctic regions with extreme temperature/light swings... in all these environments, we see huge ranges of species with dormancy. If all the tidal regions where life advances significantly is so extremely variable, I would expect most life forms would have adaptations for hibernation or stasis or cocooning. In tide regions on Earth, we have plants that fold up while the tide is out and animals that retreat to burrows while the tide comes in. More extreme versions of those would be my extrapolation.

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